The 2010 Bridge to Integrated
Marketing & Fundraising Conference

The New Direct Marketing Equation: From Driving Transactions to Building Relationships

Emily Reagan, Senior Vice President, Group Account Director, RTC Relationship Marketing

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

The ways in which consumers engage with brands has radically changed – yet too many marketers still cling to last-century approaches.  Learn what new, state-of-the-art tools, vocabularies and approaches can be married to tried-and-true techniques to significantly increase marketing effectiveness. 

Learn:

• How and why the marketing landscape has changed and what it means to marketers
• Tools for measuring and managing the relationship between individuals and your brand
• Real-life examples of how world class marketers have applied these approaches

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Polish your Relationship Building: What Foundations Want in 2011

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Mariann Payne, Director of Advancement, Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Most foundations are hungry for good content these days; they want to add value to the Capitol Hill debates, and they want visibility in Washington, DC.  When is the last time you called a foundation officer and engaged them in a conversation over the phone?  Foundation relations are all about relationships, humor, trust and more.  Join us for this lively presentation and take away a tool kits geared toward foundation relationships for your nonprofit.

 Learn:

• How to have a rich conversation with program officers at foundations
• How to engage new foundations in collaboration
• How to assert the content of your organization's mission to new audiences

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Brandraising Online: One Organization, Many Channels

Sarah Durham, Principal & Founder, Big Duck
Michelle Joyner, Communications Director, National Military Family Association

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

As you expand the tools you use to communicate online and off, and as staff roles change, how do you ensure that your organization is speaking with one voice?  Based on Sarah Durham's book, Brandraising: How to Raise Money and Increase Visibility through Smart Communications, (Jossey-Bass, 2009), this idea-generating session will link vision, mission, branding and more, and how to effectively communicate them on websites, social media, and other online channels.

Learn:

• How online communications connect to other channels (on-air, print, personal, mobile)
• How to use positioning and personality to help keep all your work on track
• How to speak with a unified organizational voice across all channels, in all tools

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Retaining "At-Risk" Revenue

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Steve Caldwell,Strategy Director, Merkle, Inc.
David Jorgensen, Senior Director of Membership, National Wildlife Federation

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

In Q2 of 2009, National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and their agency, Merkle, identified concerns associated with continuing donor retention.  While they were concerned about the negative impact on revenue in 2009 as it related to decreased retention, it was the future revenue impact that had to be addressed.  Analytical trends determined that a loss of a gift in 2009 would decrease the probability of future donor giving and estimated this impact at $1 million in 2010 alone.  Therefore, they identified donors that had not given and were at risk of not giving in 2009 and developed an at-risk strategy to reactivate these donors.  NWF and Merkle recognized that making a short-term financial investment commitment would more than offset the anticipated revenue loss.

Learn:

• How to identify donors who are at "at risk" of lapsing
• How to quantify the potential lost revenue if these donors lapse
• The importance of investing now to retain future revenue

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The Secrets of Marketing to Boomers and Seniors Online

David Weigelt, Partner, Marketing Strategist, Immersion Interactive

Target audience: Beginner (0-4 years)

Baby boomers and seniors are the largest and fastest growing group of consumers on the Internet, and, despite the down economy, they still have significant discretionary income.  No matter your goal – whether it be fundraising, issue awareness, or sales – your brand should not only be a part of  boomers' and seniors’ online conversations, it should influence them.  his starts by defining how boomers and seniors are using the Internet, and delving into the social media avenues they are adopting at rapid rates. In this in-depth presentation, you’ll examine 10 tips for motivating older adults online, including: website usability, how to make an emotional connection with older adults, segmentation and targeting, social media, and online engagement.

Learn:

• How to take a developmental approach to marketing, which results in more targeted messaging
• The specific types of social media that are most popular with older adults
• Online engagement as it relates to how baby boomers and seniors use the Internet

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The AAA Way to Fundraising Success: Maximizing Involvement, Maximizing Results

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Kay Sprinkel Grace, Founder and Principal, Transforming Philanthropy, LLC

Target audience: All

How would you like to have all of your board members actively involved in donor and fund development?  Sound impossible?  Not so.  The "AAA" (Ambassador, Advocate, Asker) approach is a proven management tool for engaging board members in tasks they are confident doing, that they choose for themselves, and they feel pride in doing.  A simple approach to a complex task, it has been tried in hundreds of organizations with great success.  It is based on the idea that not everyone on a Board may feel confident about fundraising, but all Board members can play a role in developing and sustaining relationships with donors and with the community.  Participants will be introduced to Board surveys they can adapt for their own use, and for techniques for making sure every board member gets involved, and feels confident, about resource development.  Kay Sprinkel Grace will present this workshop, based on her recent book of the same name.

Learn:

• How to structure a program that motivates all board members to get involved in donor and fund development
• Ways to raise board member confidence about their role and contribution to resource development
• Assessment tools for measuring the success of the program and ways to extend the principles to non-board volunteers and staff

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Building a Robust Major Gift Prospect Pipeline Using Direct Marketing

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Larry Raff, President, Copley Raff, Inc.
Nelson Checkoway, President and Sole Proprietor, Checkoway Consulting
Alex Pope, Executive Development Officer, Operations, Advocate (Health Care) Charitable Foundation

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

Learn the effectiveness of providing direct mail/response services and strategies with the key objective of contributing to a robust major gift prospect "pipeline."  While the presenters believe in the value of building a broad and reliable annual giving base, the true value of a direct response program is not in the gross and net revenue of the program, while important, rather it is in identifying annual giving donors who are capable of major leadership giving.  Learn how to construct the capability and systems to properly engage, cultivate, solicit, and steward major and planned gift donors who were often found through the mail program.

Learn:

• Build Lifetime Donor Relationship and Value
• Major gift donor lead development
• “Cradle to Grave” value-mail to major to planned gifts

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The Right Fit: Successful Fundraising through Board/Leadership Alignment

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June Bradham, CFRE, President, Corporate DevelopMint
Susan Sullivan, Executive Director, Roper St. Francis Foundation

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

The number one predictor of fundraising success is the amount of giving by your Board members, and their giving is directly related to their satisfaction.  Learn why ensuring Board engagement must become a top priority for every organization.  In this session, June Bradham reveals the results of her interviews with some of the world's most sought after Board members.  She describes what makes them tick, what makes them happy, and yes, what makes them give.  Co-presenting is hospital foundation Executive Director, Susan Sullivan, who's learned first hand the benefits of aligning the needs of executive leadership with the wants of her board.  From choosing the best new Board members, when we have that luxury, to reenergizing those once-great members whose enthusiasm is waning, June and Susan will surprise you with real-life examples of institutions that found renewed success by bringing leadership's goals, the institution's needs, and the board's wants into alignment.

Learn:

• How to assess the wants and needs of your Board and leadership and determine the level of alignment
• How to improve the Board experience without compromising the mission of the organization
• How to create the right Board dynamic and Board make-up necessary to achieve organization goals

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Donors on the Move: Scientific Findings From Stelter's 2009 National Survey

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Nathan Stelter, Vice President of Business Development, The Stelter Company

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

This presentation builds upon The Stelter Company’s groundbreaking 2008 survey, The Stelter Donor Insight Report: Discovering the Secret Giver, in which they first scientifically documented the universe of bequest givers and prospects (aged 40 and older) living in America.  Presenters will review the 2009 study results and share the compelling case for reaching out to younger donors, ages 40-54.”  In the 2009 study, the demographic was expanded to include Americans aged 30 and older in the hope of further broadening the understanding of the prospect pool.  The findings from this survey did not disappoint, providing concrete data on how U.S. households are reacting to the changing economic landscape, their views on inheritance and their understanding of specific gift vehicles.  Of greatest value, however, is the detailed insight into previously undocumented prospect groups and the ways in which to better communicate with potential givers.

Learn:

• How many Americans understand the term "planned giving" and their interest in making such a gift
• The extent to which the economy has affected annual and planned giving donors
• The traits of "donors on the move" and how to communicate with this group

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Analyzing Event Performance Beyond Total Donors and Funds

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Mark Becker, Founding Partner, Cathexis Partners

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

This session will look at metrics to track data, and extract solid information from previously collected data.  This session will share some of the tools available in the industry, the types of data organizations should be capturing, and how to find trends that will help in next year's messaging and communications calendar.

Learn:

• What organizations should be capturing from participants and donors
• How to analyze past event reports to observe important trends
• Building your communications calendar and messaging around the results

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SEO, Social Media All I Want to Know is Can I Make Any Sales Using the Internet?

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Rick Simmons, President and Cofounder, Dinkum Interactive

Target audience: Intermediate Advanced (5+ years)

Online marketing has been touted as the “must have” event for 2010 and before, and now we “must” have social media involved in the mix. Or do you? We will look at what the “tools” represent and how to move forward as part of an overall strategy not as something bolted on because someone said you must have it.

 Learn:

• How to understand the tools to make better decisions on their use
• Monitoring of the medium before joining the fray
• What a realistic strategy is

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Business Approach to Corporate Partnerships: Creating Revenue and Social Change

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David Whitehead, SVP and Chief Development Officer, AARP Foundation
Jennifer Dunlap, President and CEO, Development Resources, Inc.

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

In today's challenging economic environment, nonprofits need to be more attuned to innovative and creative ways to work with corporations.  Jennifer Dunlap, President and CEO of Development Resources and David Whitehead, Chief Development officer for AARP and the AARP Foundation will help participants navigate the new landscape of corporate partnership development.  Corporate partnerships today are about building upon aligned interests of the company and the nonprofit to create social impact.  This approach requires an understanding of how to develop business based strategies, how to maximize corporate business interests to leverage social impact as well as an understanding of what assets a nonprofit needs to bring to these partnership.  In this session, participants will learn how the AARP Foundation and other nonprofit organizations have changed their strategies related to corporate partnerships and developed multi-tiered relationships that help both the company and the nonprofit achieve social impact.

Learn:

• How to evaluate nonprofit assets in the context of corporate interests and social impact
• How to position your organization as the right partner to help a company achieve its social impact
• How to determine if you need to approach the company foundation vs. a line of business within the company

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But We've Never Thought of Ourselves This Way Before - Six Steps for Building Donor-Centric Direct Response and Communication Strategies

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Jeffrey Costantino, Senior Director, Cessation Marketing, American Legacy Foundation
Moira Kavanagh Crosby, President and Founder, MKDM
Robin Kornhaber, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, American Legacy Foundation
Evan Parker, Manager, Digital Membership,The Nature Conservancy

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

When was the last time you took a good long look at your organization through your donors' eyes?  Do you say “we” more than “you” in your constituent communications?  Are your member renewal rates weaker than you’d like?  Are you disappointed with the number of comments you get on your Facebook page or blog?  Well, the problem could be you – if you’re not approaching your solicitations and communications from your donors’ viewpoint?  This highly informative session will provide you a step-by-step guide to developing and applying donor-centric messaging strategies across communications and fundraising media, from direct mail to the web to social media.  Principles will be illustrated with examples and case studies, including how the American Legacy Foundation (the organization behind the “Well-known truth”® smoking-prevention campaign) took a fresh look at itself when it, for the first time, began communicating with donors.

 Learn:

• How to develop donor-centric direct response and communications strategies
• How to apply donor-centric messaging strategies to communications and fundraising media, including direct marketing
• How to implement benchmarking and evaluation processes for constituency-building

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Shhh...Your Constituents Are Speaking

Craig Zeltsar, Principal, NNE Marketing
Chuck Longfield, Chief Scientist, Blackbaud, Inc.
Nichole Krieger, Senior Director of Corporate and Direct Marketing, Paralyzed Veterans of America

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

Your constituents tell a story based on how they interact with your organization. We have the ability to understand what they are saying, but too many times we ignore the information and communicate to them with the same message everyone else gets.  In today's fundraising environment, communication should be a dialogue, listening to your donors and treating them as uniquely as possible.  This session will explore techniques and strategies to have a more individualized relationship with your constituents.

Learn:

• How to build stronger relationships with your constituents
• How to use information from your donors to better understand their motivations
• How to strengthen communication with constituents

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Get Results Through Audience-Centric Online Design

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Shirley Sexton, Director, Nonprofit Marketing, Network for Good
Jim Jacobs, Chief Marketing Officer, StoryRiver Media 

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Time and time again, organizations with the best design intentions create beautiful websites that don't accomplish their goals.  Why?  They've missed the mark!  Savvy organizations who want to give their members an enhanced online experience harness special knowledge – visitor behaviors, audience data, and information about the user experience – to improve the design and effectiveness of their websites.

Learn:

• The importance of audience-centric design and how to know if you’re doing it right
• How to leverage processes to determine what your audiences need and what will motivate them to do what you want
• Great examples of designs that put the user first

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25 Ways to Kick Start Your Cross-Channel Fundraising

Michael Johnston, President and Founder, Hewitt and Johnston Consultants

Target audience: All

Are you still trying to coordinate your online and offline messages?  Do you feel like the fundraising world is moving so fast that you can’t keep up?  Are your nonprofits resources limited so that even if you came up with the best idea, you aren’t sure you could pay for it?  This exciting session will explore the many innovative ways to attract and retain supporters - exposing you to multi-channel fundraising like you’ve never seen before.  We guarantee that you will have fun as you witness the endless ways others have jumped into the age of Google and started to combine direct mail, social network sites, personal pages, digital photos, blogs, video, twitter, widgets, audio podcasts and mobile phones to raise money and build relationships with their supporters.  This fast-paced session, with up-to-date examples from New York Public Library, Doctors Without Borders and many other exciting fundraising brands will help you master cross-channel fundraising!

Learn:

• To understand how the demographics of giving can help you determine the right mix of old and new media for fundraising
• To better understand the strengths and limitations of using new media (mobile phones, personal online pages, etc) fundraising for building donor loyalty
• To understand how older individuals may, or may not, use new media for fundraising

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Bottom Line Fundraising

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Erika Dockery, Executive Director, Greater Cincinnati World Affairs Council

Target audience: Intermediate – Advanced (5+ years)

This session will focus on how a seasoned fundraiser integrated traditional "sales" techniques into her daily work to achieve unprecedented results.  After spending 20 years working at nonprofit organizations ranging from small organizations (one-person shop) to large universities, she discovered concepts that were "revolutionary" and she found that by incorporating sales principles into her work and developing a more business-like approach to fundraising, she(and her staff) experienced bottom-line success.  Learn new techniques to help you, no matter where you are in the gift cycle - from cold calling, to personal visits with prospects, to closing more gifts in a shorter timeframe.  You will also learn how to improve the philanthropic partnership between you and your prospects, and ultimately raise more money for your organization.  Come prepared to learn some new skills and then practice with other workshop participants so you're ready to take these ways of thinking and doing back to your organization.

Learn:

• How to improve philanthropic partnerships
• How to become more effective fundraiser
• How to close gifts

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Three Scenarios For Fundraising in 2025

Mal Warwick, Founder & Chairman, Mal Warwick Associates

Target audience: All

If you’re like most people engaged in fundraising, you’re securely rooted in the here and now and you’re focused on this year’s budget and your donors’ current concerns (not to mention your boss’s!).  In this lively workshop, you’ll join consultant and author Mal Warwick on a fast journey to the year 2025.  You’ll gain a front-row seat on a future filled with limitless possibilities, great dangers, and bold new challenges for the nonprofit sector and for the fundraising profession.  By visiting a future that will open your eyes to possibilities you never before imagined, you’ll gain new perspective and new insight on your own work and your own organization.  You’ll also emerge with a set of scenario planning tools you can put to use in your organization as you set a course for your own future in these uncertain times.

Learn:

• How to broaden your understanding of possible new futures for nonprofits and fundraisers
• New insight into how well your organization is equipped to face an uncertain future
• The scenario planning method of strategic planning and its promise for the nonprofit sector

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Good to Great: Donor Stewardship Makes the Difference

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Phyllis Freedman, President, Smart Giving
Jennifer Bielat, Assistant Vice President, Easter Seals
Patricia Cornell, Director of Development, Food & Friends

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Struggling to improve direct mail retention rates, move donors to higher levels of giving, and transform donors into legacy givers?  Donor stewardship can make the difference.  In spite of this, many organizations pay little attention to stewardship, lacking formal or even informal programs.  Whether you are raising money through direct mail, major gifts or planned giving - or some combination - donor stewardship can turn flat or declining revenue into revenue growth.

Learn:

• What is meant by stewardship (hint: it’s not a lapel pin or a certificate of recognition)
• What kind of return on investment can you expect
• How to gain buy-in for a donor stewardship program

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Statistics for Fundraisers

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Geoff Peters, President and CEO, CDR Fundraising Group

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

What measure are you using?  Fundraising metrics isn't just recency, frequency and amount - although those are fundamental building blocks - it is also about how to use the right statistic to answer the right question.  This workshop will explore the uses of direct marketing data and how to analyze information to answer key questions so you can improve results.  We will include such topics as: testing, determining sample size, long term value, return on investment, measuring in an integrated marketing environment, monetizing PR, measuring trends, and many, many more including topics and questions suggested by YOU!  And, in the process, we will expose some common flaws in analytic thinking, including ones which commonly trip up even seasoned professionals.

Learn:

• Not to roll out on the coin premium package to your best lists despite the fact that it "won" the test
• Why a strategy that leads to donors with a higher long term value isn't necessarily one you want to pursue
• That how many pieces you mail is completely irrelevant to the statistical validity of the result you get

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Social Media is about Socializing

Harry Gold, Founder and CEO, Overdrive Interactive

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Social Media Marketing is not about advertising, it’s about socializing!  It’s about creating robust, interconnected platforms and channels that embed high-quality content into the social web in a way that encourages meaningful and measurable online and offline behaviors.  The presentation will include real case studies from top companies who use social media to weave their brands, offers and messages into the web to make lasting connections with consumers, encourage viral promotion and drive measurable results and ROI.

 Learn:

• How to build a community of friends and fans in a way that encourages meaningful interaction and viral marketing
• Practical steps you need to take to launch and leverage a full blown and measurable content-driven social media channel
• How to measure and report on the actual ROI of your Social Media Marketing

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Sharing the Wealth: New Trends in Cause Marketing

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Lynn Croneberger, CFRE, Vice President of Development, Reading Is Fundamental
Laura Goodman, Director, Partnership Development, Share Our Strength

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Need to create a win-win-win cause marketing campaign with corporate partners, local affiliates and your national organization?  This session will explore strategies used in the successful Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and Macy’s Book, A Brighter Future Campaign.  Lynn Croneberger, VP of Development, Reading is Fundamental and Laura Goodman, Strategist and Practice Leader, Social Capital Partnership will share how a national organization’s cause marketing campaign increased local revenue and engaged local affiliates that resulted in additional revenue.  “Sharing” with local affiliates can reap impressive growth while creating a “local community” feel.  Macy’s Book, A Brighter Future Campaign doubled from a $3.1 million campaign to a $6.5 million campaign in one year.  Attend this session and learn the value of consumer engagement and the opportunities to cultivate long-term partners by involving additional sponsors.

 Learn:

• How to leverage local chapters and affiliates to enhance national cause marketing campaigns
• How to create consumer donation cause marketing campaigns and learn why they are so successful today
• How to integrate multiple partners and provide additional recognition for long term partners

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What’s in an Image? Developing Your Brand & Strategic Marketing Approach

Brooks Kenny, President, Promoting Public Causes

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

A brand identity is more than a logo, tagline, or name.  It defines not only what your organization is, but also what it means to funders, partners, and the constituents you serve.  Whether you need to build or enhance your organization’s identity, this training will provide the critical steps of creating a lasting brand for your organization.  Participants will learn common communications mistakes, the importance of effective communications in today’s competitive marketplace, the difference between being customer-driven and organizational-driven and how to conduct a communications audit.

 Learn:

• Why a strong communications platform is important for your organization
• The best channels to reach key audiences
• Steps to develop clear messages, and ways to assess their current brand identity and tips for when

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The BIG Idea: Getting the Most by Getting it Monthly

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Jonathon Grapsas, Regional Director North America, Pareto Fundraising
Alicia Meulensteen, Director, Direct Response, ASPCA

Target audience:  Advanced (10+ years)

Since the 90’s, charities in most developed fundraising nations have been striving to recruit monthly donors.  Yet in a saturated and cluttered market, this is becoming increasingly difficult.  This session will show some of the most innovative and effective ways to recruit and convert monthly donors using integrated channels.  Using case studies from around the world, we will look at how we attain monthly donors and how getting them to give monthly means we get them giving even more, for longer.

 Learn:

• Tried and tested approaches having success around the world recruiting and converting monthly
• How to treat donors recruited through different media channels
• The data and insights to convince your boss and Board that monthly giving is right for them

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Building and Mobilizing your Online Community

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Catherine Algeri, Senior Account Executive, InfoGroup Nonprofit
Kety Esquivel, Executive Director and CEO, Latinos in Social Media
Amy Ganderson, Associate Director of Digital Marketing, The Nature Conservancy
Arielle Holland, Consultant, M+R Strategic Services
Jane Shepard, Manager of iPromotion, Interactive Group, ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

So, you’re tweeting and have fans, but you wish you had larger growth or engagement on your social media sites.  Are there tools, techniques, or strategies you should be employing?  This panel of online marketing experts will share what’s working for their organizations and audiences. You’ll hear about valuable findings from new research – the Nonprofit Social Media Benchmarks Study – that will help you create your own social media benchmarks and strategy. 

Learn:

• Best practices for what to do and not to do to grow your social media base
• How to engage corporations and other organizations to help you
• How to target Latinos and other special audiences in the social media world

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Creativity in Action: 2010 Showcase

Tony Elischer BA, FInstF, Managing Director, THINK Consulting Solutions

Target audience: All

Creativity is central to success and Elischer is well placed to bring you a showcase of thinking from around the world.  This ninety minute session is packed with ideas and insights from the nonprofit and commercial worlds, ranging from the brilliant to the bizarre. Fast moving, challenging, original and insightful, this is an essential session for people who value ideas and want to become more creative in their thinking and actions.

Learn:

• The importance of looking at the commercial and outside world for trends and developments
• The importance of creativity in driving a fundraising portfolio
• How to stimulate new ideas

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How to Keep Your Major Donors Happy: 10 Stewardship Tips to Live By

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Martha Schumacher, ACFRE, President, Hazen Inc.
Katie Jett Walls, Manager of Individual Giving, Capital City Public Charter School

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

Your major donors are supporting you today.  What about tomorrow?  During tough economic times, there is nothing more important than retaining your top donors.  But how?  Engaging communications, VIP outreach and active listening are just a few of the best practice approaches to keep them on board. You can implement all 10 of these ideas as soon as you get back to the office.  Attend this session if you want to keep your major donors - and keep them happy!

Learn:

• How to retain your major donors for the long term
• How to implement a stewardship program that works best for your major donor base
• How to create a major donor stewardship culture in your organization

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They Laughed Until They Gave: A Comedy in Three Acts

Nicholas Simmonds, VP Development & Public Affairs, Hebrew Home of Greater Washington
Jeffrey Wilklow, Vice President, Campbell & Company

Target audience: Intermediate – Advanced (5+ years)

A Bridge Conference world premier performance, They Laughed Until They Gave is a live action exploration of the anatomy of a major gift solicitation and the potential pitfalls of perfunctory preparation.

We are at a pivotal point in the Sisters of the Immaculate Perception’s capital campaign to expand the hospital’s pediatric services.  The future of the new neo-natal unit, the “brain child” of Maria, the inexperienced campaign chair, hinges on a really BIG ASK that is scheduled to take place the following week.  Maria has never solicited a gift of this size.  The play opens in the office of Development Director Phyllis Stien who has convened an urgent meeting of her team ahead of a rehearsal session with Maria.

Due to its graphic nature, including some simply awful acting, this session is suitable for senior fundraisers who have a capacity for self-deprecation.

Learn:

• How to train Board leaders to do large gift solicitation through role playing
• How to use humor to energize your fundraising
• How to laugh at yourself

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"Boot Camp" for Bequests

Karen Gallardo, Senior Director of Gift Planning and Major Gifts, AARP Foundation

Target audience: Beginner (0-4 years)

Like a boot camp fitness class, this session is based upon the principles of discipline, motivation, and teamwork.  We'll cover ten exercises that can boost your bequest program.  The exercises were inspired by gift planners across the country in areas such as bequest messaging, legacy society recognition and asking for early distributions from estates.  Bequest programs require a commitment over a long horizon and should include quick bursts of energy, strength and agility, and a gentle stretching of our minds.  Learn new tips to ensure your organization maximizes the revenue from bequests - the foundation of gift planning.

Learn:

• Key messages for bequest gifts
• How to identify best bequest prospects
• How to celebrate bequest commitments internally before revenue is realized

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What the IRS Wants Exempt Organizations to Know

Judith E. Kindell, Senior Technical Advisor for the Director, Exempt Organizations, Internal Revenue Service

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

Join us for a rare opportunity to meet Judith E. Kindell, Senior Technical Advisor for Lois Lerner, Director, Exempt Organizations Division of the IRS, as she discusses the new Form 990 and the IRS's priorities for Exempt Organizations in 2010 and beyond. As the Director of the Exempt Organizations Division of the Internal Revenue Service, Ms. Lerner is responsible for administering and enforcing the tax laws that apply to more than 1.8 million organizations recognized by the IRS as exempt from tax. Don’t miss this special session, which is sure to be of interest to fundraisers, finance directors, legal compliance officers, and consultants.  

Learn:

• Why the IRS is interested in governance and transparency
• How the first year of the new Form 990 filings went
• Exempt Organizations new Academic Institution Initiative

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Integrate Your Social, Web and Integrated Marketing Programs Using Persona Segmentation

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Randy Hlavac, President & CEO, Marketing Synergy 

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

Social Media Marketing is rapidly evolving from a low-cost medium – once used merely to create a “buzz” about your company – to a sophisticated and measurable way to reach communities of potential high-value customers.  In this informative session, you will learn the newest ways to measure and analyze social media. You’ll explore how companies are merging their web, social media, marketing database and CRM systems into a single, integrated marketing program.  In addition, you’ll examine how social and web programs are measured and targeted, and the many ways you can engage visitors to make them part of your marketing database and CRM programs.

 Learn:

• The four types of social media analytics and measurement systems, and which is best for your organization’s marketing programs
• How primary and secondary research can be used to develop web communities and improved social media programs to impact your highest-value markets
• How to entice your web visitors so they tell you the social media, websites and other media they typically use to compare your products with your competitors, and how this data will transform them from visitors to customers

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Foundation Fundraising Demystified: Translating Ideas into Value Proposition

Carrie Kolasky, Director of Development, Brookings Institution

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

For many years the Brookings Institution, Metropolitan Policy Program (Metro) was fully funded by foundations.  Carrie Kolasky, Director of Development, will discuss how the Metro Program at the Brookings Institution successfully maintained existing foundation support through stewardship and follow-through, while attracting new support through their Metropolitan Leadership Council.  Carrie will also share some preparation tips when approaching foundations, how to steward and maintain foundation support, and why it may be wise for an organization to diversify their donor portfolio.

 Learn:

• How to secure foundation funding
• Best practices for stewarding and maintaining foundation support
• Strategies for diversifying funding sources

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Unlocking the Secrets of Demand Creation

Suzanne Carawan, VP Marketing & Strategy, The Port Network

Target audience: Beginner (0-4 years)

What makes some campaigns work and others fail?  Why are some organizations so good at gaining widespread awareness?  How do you stay top-of-mind to your donors and members?  Join us for this information-packed, workshop that breaks down the little known world of “demand-creation” marketing.  Suzanne Carawan will outline the methods and techniques used by strategic marketers to create demand for organizations and their initiatives.  Join us for an interactive workshop where we will build a fully integrated marketing campaign designed to boost brand awareness and create desired behaviors in targeted populations. You’ll walk away feeling confident in your ability to create, manage and assess campaigns, as well as how to effectively influence the behavior of your target populations.

Learn:

• The elements of demand-creation initiatives
• The elements of an integrated marketing campaign
• How to plan, manage and assess integrated marketing campaigns

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Overcoming Obstacles to Multi-channel Integration

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Geoff Peters, President and CEO, CDR Fundraising Group
Adam Silva, Chief Development Officer, Wounded Warrior Project
Jo Sullivan, Managing Director, CDR Fundraising Group

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

In fundraising, there is ample evidence that multi-channel integration is desirable.  This session will briefly review that evidence and then provide an in depth examination of the major external (e.g. difficulty in merging data from multiple databases) and internal (e.g. separation of marketing and fundraising functions) obstacles that prevent true multi-channel integration from happening.  A case history of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as well as several other examples will be given along with suggestions of how to overcome these obstacles.

Learn:

• How to identify and resolve internal obstacles to integration (e.g.silos)
• How to identify and resolve external obstacles to integration (e.g. databases)
• How to re-purpose existing assets so that they can be used in multiple channels

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Help! I'm a 20th Century Fundraiser in a 21st Century World!

Madeline Stanionis, CEO, Watershed

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Welcome to online engagement 2010-style, in which your donors and activists have less money, more options, a crazy mix of hope and despair, and a souped-up cell phone.  If you’ve got a lot of work on your plate – and probably fewer staff who can inspire, activate, and fundraise online – this is the workshop for you.  In her typically funny, no-holds-barred style, Madeline separates the wheat from the chaff in the what’s-working-now department, showing you not only how you should be raising money online in 2010, but how you shouldn’t  be going about it.

Learn:

• How to raise money online
• How NOT raise money online
• How to impress your kids with your Facebook skills

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Integrating Fundraising and Your Mission: Making it Real for Supporters

Philip Radford, Executive Director, Greenpeace USA
Matthew Sherrington, Strategy Director, The Good Agency

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Are you and your nonprofit clearly and confidently conveying your mission?  Perhaps you know all about relationship marketing, brand integration, and stewardship, but is retention still a massive problem?  Do you find that donors are not connecting with you?  This session offers a reminder that philanthropy is about people who care about causes.  It’s not all about you (your nonprofit), keeping people at arm’s length and treating them like ATMs.  Nonprofits are a bridge between people and their passions.  This session will explore what supporters really want, and what integrating your brand experience really means.  More than making a connection with supporters, this is about helping them be part of the mission and making it real.   This session includes inspiring examples of nonprofits who have made it really real.

Learn:

• How to think in terms of supporter experience, not activity or channel
• How to honor and champion the donor's place in the mission, and organization
• The essence of your organization's mission, and translate that into supporter engagement

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A Case Study on Major Gift Fundraising: How a Donor’s Passion and Networks Proved to be Successful

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Dayna Kuhar, Director of Leadership Giving, Inova Health System Foundation
Judie Grabski, Director, Operations, Thomson Reuters Special Services, LLC
Michael Grabski, Scitor
Joseph Suarez, CFRE, Director of Community Relations, Booz Allen Hamilton

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

In 2004, Mike and Judie's son, Peter, was diagnosed with Trisomy13. During the pregnancy, the doctors informed the couple that their son was "not consistent with life outside the womb."  The prognosis was that Peter would not likely survive past 24 weeks from conception.

Mike and Judie will share how making a personal gift and coordinating grass roots fundraising efforts can translate into major gift donations from individuals and corporations.  They will share how they were able to help raise $100,000 for the program just in 2009.  They will share their secrets they used to promote a program, secure funds needed to sustain the program and the new fundraising initiatives they have for the future.

Joseph Suarez of Booz Allen Hamilton will join the Grabskis and share his prospective from the corporate side.  Joe will discuss the involvement of Booz Allen Hamilton to the program and the creative opportunities Booz Allen Hamilton has created for employee engagement.

Learn:

• How to engage passionate donors to raise money for a program
• How to engage employers to think out of the box for a successful philanthropic partnership
• How to develop a fundraising plan for the future based on the donors own networks

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Personal Re-branding – Maximizing Your Personal Impact and Potential

Talisa Thomas-Hall, CEO, Principal, The Center for Effective Organizations

Target audience: All

What makes you stand out from the crowd and gives you that winning edge?  Many professionals are able to sell a product, idea, or organization but fall short when asked to give the quick elevator speech about their own value.  Add to this the fact that in today’s economy some are rethinking career paths and professions, and the need to have a personal value proposition is magnified.  Who are you?  What do you bring to the table?  How do you need to be perceived by others in order to guarantee your success?  Talisa Thomas-Hall uses her over 20 years in member relations, marketing and acquisition to walk attendees through these important life-changing questions and provide the tools and instruction for developing a personal business plan and value proposition that will lead to a more highly valued and successful business life and personal fulfillment.  This session is very interactive and applicable for all experience levels.

Learn:

• How to identify your professional image (how others perceive) and define your desired personal brand (and learn the power and importance of having a personal brand image)
• How to develop a personal value proposition and learn how to effectively use it to enhance business effectiveness
• How to develop a personal business plan (success roadmap) with some invaluable tips and tools to assure greater immediate and long term success

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Marketing of Planned Gifts - Panel Discussion

Karen Gallardo, Senior Director of Gift Planning and Major Gifts, AARP Foundation
Kevin Moran, Co-Founder & Principal, Integral LLC
Simon Williams, Strategist & Practice Leader, Creative Services, Social Capital Partnerships
Jay Steenhuysen, Founder, Steenhuysen Associates and Co-Founder, Covenant Calls
Amy J. Gill, Director, Development Services, World Wildlife Fund

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Come hear new insights from our panel of fundraising practitioners on ideas that work in a variety of areas including marketing planned gifts, using focus groups to refine planned giving messaging, social marketing for planned giving, qualifying planned giving prospects over the phone and incorporating planned giving into fundraising analytics and modeling. 

Following the panel discussion, the audience will be invited to pose questions to panelists and create an interactive idea sharing session of what is working in planned giving today.

Learn:

• Ideas from peers for marketing planned gifts
• Proven tactics for qualifying planned giving prospects
• How to include planned giving in general fundraising analytics

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How to Live Your Life Like You've Already Won the Lottery

Linda Gottfried, Southern Maryland Community Services Manager, Alzheimer's Association, National Capital Area Chapter

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

This interactive session is for the "been there, done that" professional in need of self-reflection and recharging of professional and personal batteries.  When was the last time you took time for yourself?  This session will inspire you to create a strategy to make changes needed to move your life to the next level.  Through self-exploration, and small group sharing, you will be guided through seven steps to get real control of your life.

Learn:

• How to create personal and professional goals
• How to overcome self-limiting thoughts
• How to appreciate yourself and others (even difficult people)

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Multi-channel Strategies - How Offline Media is Enabling Cross-media Integration

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Oscar Padilla, Director, Interactive Services, Vertis Communications

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

In an age where newspaper and other traditional media channels are experiencing double-digit declines, successful marketers have been encouraged to promote brands through more integrated approaches.  In this instructive presentation, you’ll examine two case studies of successful marketing programs that leveraged traditional media channels to prompt consumers to use both interactive and digital channels.

 Learn:

• A broad understanding of interactive media channels
• The basics of media integration process
• Actual case studies of successful media integration 

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Six Steps to Sponsorship Success: What Nonprofit Leaders Needs to Know

Gail Bower, President, Bower & Co. Consulting LLC

Target audience: Beginner (0-4 years)

If you're like many nonprofit leaders, you may be wondering if corporate sponsorship revenue is the answer.  After a year of market fluctuations and uncertainty drying up traditional sources of funding, is it time to dive into the corporate sponsorship pool?  Before you take the plunge, join marketing and sponsorship specialist, Gail Bower, author of "How to Jump-start Your Sponsorship Strategy in Tough Times," to learn about best practices for success with corporate sponsorship.

Learn:

• What a successful corporate sponsorship looks like and why it should support your mission
• 6 building blocks for success
• 3 common pitfalls nonprofits make and how to avoid them

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Understanding Digital Data - How Online Data is Changing Direct Marketing

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Bruce Biegel, Managing Director, The Winterberry Group

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

As consumers shift their time spent with media online, frequently referred to as online media consumption, there is a vast amount of digital data being collected and used for online targeting.  Add traditional offline data to the mix, and marketers have more targeting power than ever before – and are using it across digital channels and for offline marketing.

 Learn:

• The current state of online, and offline, data useage
• How to get the most out of digital data while still being privacy conscious
• Who the players are in the digital data ecosystem

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The Hidden Gold in Your Donor File - Lapsed Donors

Becky Odum, Vice President, Strategic Services, Barton Cotton
Krista Humphrey, Marketing Manager, National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund

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Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

In these tough economic times, every organization is trying to figure out how to cut costs to maintain net revenue today without sacrificing revenue in the long term.  This session will explore why reactivating lapsed donors could be the most important strategy you employ as we continue to weather the economic downturn.  We’ll talk through the long term value of lapsed donors compared to newly acquired donors and provide guidelines for how to determine the right lapsed audience.  We’ll explore the concept of  “Relative Lapsed Donors” and how to identify them in your file.  Then, we’ll discuss strategies for getting them back.  From modeling to ask strategies to messaging to package strategies, we’ll give you techniques to go for the gold!

Learn:

• How to identify hidden donors who are about to lapse
• Proven techniques to reactivate donors
• How to find a balance between lapsed reactivation and new donor acquisition

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Welcome to our Org! How to Create a Strategic Conversion Series

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Brenna Holmes, Interactive Services Account Executive, Adams Hussey & Associates
Liz Murphy, President, RedEngine Digital
Jenn Watral, Senior Marketing Manager, National Wildlife Federation

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Hooray! Your online campaigns have been a great success and hordes of new donors, prospects and activists are rushing to your site to engage.  Now what do you do?  What’s your plan to keep ‘em coming back?  To sustain their interest?  Set the foundation for repeat engagement by learning how to create and test a strategic email welcome series.

Learn:

• How to create a strategic calendar for online cultivation and conversion
• The best practices of online conversion – timing, follow-up and more
• What other organizations are testing, and how to adapt what they’re doing for your organization

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One-on-One...Online! How Your Shop Can Build a Multi-Channel Major Gifts Program

Bob Ramin, Executive Director, National Aquarium
Martha Schumacher, ACFRE, President, Hazen Inc.
Harry Lynch, CEO, Sanky Inc.

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

You've heard it before - to be the best of the best, your development and membership team should establish a comprehensive 360 degree major gifts initiative.  You must build a sophisticated multi-channel program that includes everything from individualized one-on-one major gift visits to highly targeted direct mail and online marketing approaches; then, seamlessly integrate those critical fundraising efforts to maximize efficiencies.  But how does your team make it happen?  This intensive hands-on session will guide attendees through the process of launching a multi-channel major gift program that will expand the size and giving level of your major donor base, grow your revenues, and increase your organization's capacity to fulfill its critical mission.  We'll also provide crucial tips on the key to your team building a successful program - effective time management.

Learn:

• How to use web-based communications to enhance and bolster your offline major donor communications
• How to integrate your entire major gift program - online and off
• How to manage your time so that you're spending more time on major gifts and less on everything else

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The Care and Feeding of a Creative Work Environment

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Joel Zimmerman, Senior Nonprofit Management Consultant, CDR Fundraising Group

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Has it been a long time since your work group had a great new idea?  Does your group come up with great ideas all the time, but find itself unable to actually make any changes?  If you answered "yes" to either question, you need to perk up your work environment!  Creativity and innovation can be nourished or extinguished by the environment in your workplace.  In this session, we define creativity and innovation, identify the steps leading from one to the other, and explain why it is important to distinguish between them.  Participants will reflect on their own work environments and consider their institutional barriers to creativity and innovation.  We'll present specific ideas and techniques you can use to encourage creative solutions to problems and spur innovative behaviors that will improve your organization.

Learn:

• The process of moving from a creative idea to an innovative process
• Institutional barriers that threaten creativity and inhibit innovation
• How to create a work environment that encourages creative thought and successful innovation

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Fundraising in the Context of Faith: Challenges and Possibilities

Sr. Georgette Lehmuth, OSF, President and CEO, National Catholic Development Conference
Phyllis Castens Wiederhoeft, PhD, Executive Director, Association of Lutheran Development Executives
Steven Woolf, Senior Tax Policy Counsel, Jewish Federations of North America

Target audience: All

An expert panel representing three different religious affiliations will discuss the challenges facing religious fundraisers from their distinctive perspectives.  This workshop will be interactive with opportunities for attendees to share insights and ask questions.

Learn:

• A better understanding of the specific challenges that face religious fundraisers
• Some suggestions and recommendations of what religious fundraisers can do to strengthen their development efforts
• Ideas to consider in terms of the future of fundraising in the context of faith

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Rethinking How We Make Decisions in Nonprofit Sector Marketing

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James Gelatt, Professor and Program Director, Graduate School, Univ of MD Univ College

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Much of what has been written and taught about marketing in nonprofits has focused on “The 4 P’s” and an approach based on the assumption that decisions about marketing can and must be grounded in empirical research.  There is a growing body of literature that suggests some alternatives to this approach and a way of enhancing our decision making effectiveness.  Our way of looking at ourselves and our stakeholders needs to shift.  The relationship between the nonprofit and donor is undergoing dramatic shift toward a more symbiotic relationship.  We need to see the whole picture.  We need for the entire nonprofit to have a marketing mental model in order to rethink our marketing of products and services.  This interactive session will provide information on what we are learning about how to make effective marketing decisions and will teach participants to apply these concepts to actual nonprofit marketing case studies.

Learn:

• A better understanding of the changing “mental models” regarding nonprofit marketing
• To assess your own organization’s marketing strategies in light of emerging marketing theory and practice
• How to develop a plan of action for your nonprofit’s marketing

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Leveraging Consumer Demand Insights to Enhance Targeting Precision and Relevance

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Sue Tobias, Principal, The Cambridge Group

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Many companies have realized the importance of including research in their marketing plans.  Yet, year after year, organizations continue to sink time and money into attempts to read their market based only on demographics and brand usage.  Innovations in understanding customer demand have gone far beyond the concepts of segmentation and file overlays.  Hear about the Cambridge Group’s latest innovations, and how they have helped clients achieve consistent growth and a competitive advantage.

 Learn:

• That consumers have become better informed, more sophisticated and far more demanding
• That successful companies have become more focused on understanding customer demand, rather than product supply
• More about the ways your customers make their buying decisions

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Successful Foundation Fundraising (in any Economy) from Start to Finish

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Amy M. Eisenstein, MPA, CFRE, Principal, Tri Point Resources

Target audience: Beginner - Intermediate (0-9 years)

In this session, Amy will return to the basics of successful foundation fundraising and focus on strategies for winning grants in any economy.  She will discuss the differences between foundation fundraising in good times and bad.  Emphasis will be placed on the proper technique for researching foundations, the importance of building relationships with foundation funders, following guidelines for writing the grant, and the critical stage of follow-up.  Take away a top ten list of things to do to win more grants for your organization this year.

 Learn:

• How to research appropriate foundations for your organization
• How to build successful relationships with foundation funders
• How to submit winning grant proposals

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Direct Marketers' Role and Objectives in a Multi - Channel Integrated Campaign

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Ted Moon, President and Founder, Pathfinder Interactive

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

Online marketing is a key part of a brand’s multi-channel, integrated marketing campaign.  Not only will online extend a campaign into the digital arena and carry the brand’s presence to that medium, the direct marketing arm of online will serve as the intersection between the campaign and lead generation/sales.  Combined with affinity-based direct mail, the direct response online campaign plays a vital role in getting the most out of integrated campaigns.

Learn:

• The direct marketer’s role as part of a multi-channel integrated campaign
• How to set objectives for the direct-response elements of an integrated campaign
• How to measure and evaluate the direct response components of the campaign

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Still Can't Crack the Mid-level Giving Nut?

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Jaime Grams, Vice President, Integral
Jessica Harrington, Vice President, Schultz & Williams
Sean Scanlon, Senior Director for Philanthropy, Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Mid-level giving programs aren’t easy - but when conceived and implemented correctly, they can lead to significant revenue.  Our presenters will take you through what it takes to design a program from the ground up - evaluating recognition and benefit opportunities, contact strategies and list selection.  We’ll also look at creative ways to add urgency and interest to the package.  Attendees will learn how to leverage their data to understand where their valuable mid-level donors have originated and learn key metrics and reporting approaches designed to ensure their value is being optimized.  Through actual case studies and real results, this session will give you the tools to create or improve your own mid-level giving program and turn good donors into great ones.

Learn:

• How to create a program that distinguishes itself from a traditional member/donor appeal and renewal cycle
• How to look for prime prospects who have the propensity + capacity to upgrade into this giving level
• How to quantify if donors are staying engaged and have improved their 12-month value

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What's the Good Word? Re-write Your Website to Engage and Inspire Supporters

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Tucker Ball, Director of Online Marketing, National Partnership for Women and Families
Kat Powers, Online Marketing Manager, Conservation International
Dolores McDonagh, Vice President, Membership, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Jessica Hood, Director of Consulting, Charity Dynamics

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Research shows that an estimated 86 percent of major donors visit an organization’s website before making a donation.  Further, the Nielsen Study revealed this year that donors make giving decisions based on how well a nonprofit’s website conveys its mission.  For a nonprofit organization’s web content to be effective, it must be easy to find and impossible to ignore.  Whether you're responsible for writing web content yourself, or you manage teams who need to produce content, you can make the most of this all-powerful marketing medium by mastering the skills of donor-focused web writing that prompts action and gets results. 

Learn:

• How great online marketing and web content satisfies user needs and inspires loyalty
• The top 8 tips for delivering killer web content, and examples of web content that does the job well
• A plan for nurturing your web content to keep it fresh and engaging

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Beyond Crisis: How Haiti Changed Everything

Kristin McCurry, Managing Director, MINDset Direct 
Mark Melia, Deputy Vice President for Charitable Giving Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
Alicia Meulensteen, Director of Direct Response, ASPCA
Amanda Seller, Director of International Fundraising, The UN Refugee Agency
David Whitehead, SVP and Chief Development Officer, AARP Foundation

Target audience: All

In this interactive panel discussion, leaders from America's top charities will share their stories from the days following the Haiti earthquake.  Representing a variety of nonprofits, including both relief and non-relief organizations, speakers will discuss how  fundraising changed - for all of us - in the wake of the disaster.  This session will cover how those involved in the effort handled the challenge of the emergency, messaging around their work, and reacting to a rapidly changing fundraising environment and how non-relief organizations continued to make their missions relevant and listen to donor feedback.  You'll get a broad perspective from panelists including executive leaders, fundraising strategists, and program practitioners.

Learn:

• How donors, their viewpoints, motivations, and expectations changed in the wake of the disaster 
• How fundraising was changed - permanently - by the situation 
• How organizations mobilized and adapted quickly in a rapidly-changing fundraising environment 

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Marketing and Fundraising for Campaigns, Special Initiatives, and Anniversary Celebrations

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Jeanne G. Jacob, CAE, CFRE, Executive Director, Goodwin House Foundation
Barbara Ciconte, CFRE, Senior Vice President, Donor Strategies

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Make money as you celebrate and promote your organization’s campaign, special initiative, or anniversary.  Through marketing and fundraising strategies, learn how you can achieve both promotion and fundraising for your organization.  Speakers will share their successes of marketing and raising money for organizations before, during, and after these occasions.  They will address such needs as: how the marketing and fundraising departments can work together cooperatively on such efforts; how to engage volunteers in the process; how to structure the staff for success; identifying when to hire consultants; and, producing electronic and print supporting materials.

Learn:

• How to raise money for your organization during campaigns, special initiatives, and celebratory years
• How to work with your organization’s marketing department to promote these events and to raise money from current donors and prospects
• How to work with your organization’s Board and other staff to identify marketing and fundraising opportunities that relate to these celebrations

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Effective Leadership Skills

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Chris Stacey, President, Sapphire Consulting
Tynesia Boyea-Robinson, Executive Director, Year Up

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Leadership is a skill that can be developed and is more important than ever during uncertain times.  Whether you are already leading your team or want to sharpen your skills to be ready for new opportunities, you don't have to be a "born leader" in order to lead effectively.  How do leaders create compelling visions, motivate their teams, solve problems and prioritize, especially during tough times?  Discover how to cultivate your inherent leadership traits and compensate for weaknesses by becoming more self-aware and engaging effectively with the people around you.  Tynesia Boyea Robinson, Executive Director of Year Up, leads her team to both successfully help disadvantaged young adults and teach them leadership skills.  Chris Stacey, founder of Sapphire Consulting, developed her leadership skills through training and education despite a lack of role models in her early career.

Learn:

• Elements of effective leadership
• How to identify your personal leadership strengths and weaknesses
• How to develop tools to lead effectively in different contexts

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Message Challenges for Jewish Nonprofit Organizations

Tiffany Neill, Partner, Lautman Maska Neill & Company
Lisa Schneider-Friedman, Director of Annual Campaigns, Hebrew Home of Greater Washington
Bennett Samson, Director of Development, New Israel Fund
Hillary Waxman, Executive Director, Direct Marketing, UJA Federation of New York

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

Think messaging is when you are asking for money for a Jewish organization in the Jewish market?  Think again.  This dynamic panel will highlight three messaging challenges and how each overcame the challenge to raise even more money!  You can find ways to address your own challenges in their creative solutions.

Learn:

• How to message for non emergency donors when there is a crisis in Israel
• How to change the focus of your funding in your message
• How to show donors and prospects the need when they think you are fully funded

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"The Vizzini Syndrome" - Utilizing Primary Research to Drive Fundraising Strategy

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Stephen Ferrando, Strategy Director, Merkle, Inc.
Chris Griffin, Managing Director, Direct Marketing, Arthritis Foundation
Dirk Rinker, President and CEO, Campbell Rinker

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

So let’s frame the situation, or better still, let us steal for a moment from a classic movie moment in the Princess Bride to answer this question, “How do you know what your supporters / donors want?” As Vizzini from the Princess Bride might respond, “It's so simple.  All I have to do is divine from what I know of [them]: are [they] the sort of people who would put the poison into their own goblet or their enemy’s?” So the trick is to “divine” from what you know about your file.  Interesting.  What happens when what you thought you knew about your donor file is no longer true?  Or maybe it still is true?  How can you be certain?  What happens when you, as a fundraiser, come face-to-face with “compound ignorance?”  When you just don’t know what you don’t know?  The remedy is Primary Research.  This presentation will cover several data gathering techniques that were used by the Arthritis Foundation to gain insight and knowledge regarding their existing donor file, as well as their prospect universe.  These methods will include Focus Groups, Conjoint Testing, Surveys, Donor Perceptions, Prospect Opinions, as well as Online and Offline Data Collection.  The presentation will then underscore how investing in Research today enabled the Arthritis Foundation to adjust and refiine their strategies going forward in a way that they could not have accomplished in the absence of the findings garnered through research.

Learn:

• The advantages and disadvantages of several research techniques and data points
• What to do with this data now that you have it
• How to deploy strategies as result of examining a variety of research data points. (survey, data capture, etc.)

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Redefining "Loyalty" in Today's Economy

Cyndi Greenglass, President, Agency Services, Diamond Marketing Solutions

Target audience: Intermediate (5-9 years)

The restaurant industry experienced and enjoyed remarkable growth for ten years – and then the economy changed, along with consumer behavior.  As consumers’ disposable income fell, and spending slowed, the nation’s largest multi-brand restaurant operations had to determine how to keep their best customers and weather the economic storm.

 Learn:

• How to determine the “customer lifecycle,” and how to adjust it to reflect today’s economic environment
• How to plan relevant communications based on the customer’s lifecycle
• How to leverage loyalty and customer data to survive economic downturns

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The Power of Partnership: Building Successful Bridges to the Corporate Community

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Emily Rothberg, Southeast Community Involvement Leader, Deloitte Services LP

Target audience: All

Companies today are moving beyond check writing and want greater return on their investment.  At the same time, corporate philanthropists are sometimes inundated with requests from organizations in need of operating support, even as they seek to serve more clients, while facing staffing cuts and other threats to their viability.  Get inside the head of one corporate funder to understand the challenges companies face in navigating this sometimes daunting political and social arena: What gets her attention, prompts her to return your phone call, or better yet get that “pay-off” meeting?  You will receive candid advice and engage in frank discussion with a regional Community Involvement leader from among the most recognized socially responsible business organizations in the country.

 Learn:

• What’s important to corporations today?  What trends are shaping corporate giving now and for the future?
• What approaches & tools can maximize your ability to build “strong partnerships” between your foundation, or nonprofit organization, and corporate supporters?
• What are the “hot buttons” that get the attention of funders vs. closing the door?

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Micro-Campaigns in the Age of Real-Time Marketing

Brendan Gallagher, VP/Group Director, Emerging Technologies & Channels, Digitas Health

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

Thanks to real-time tools such as Twitter and Social Search, the world is changing – and nowhere is that more relevant than in marketing.  Brendan Gallagher, a social media expert at the forefront of this change, will discuss how real-time tools are used, and how to develop brand strategies for those tools.  In addition, he will present famous (and infamous) examples involving the use of real-time marketing tools.

Learn:

• Why it’s important to know about the latest real-time tools
• How to best utilize these tools for your brand
• Ways in which other brands have found success in this new age

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Your Donors are Sending You Signals. Are you Reading the Signs?

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Craig DePole, Senior Vice President, Newport Creative
Laura Connors, Director of Direct Marketing, National Parks Conservation Association

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

This session will detail how the National Parks Conservation Association has moved beyond a standard Recency, Frequency, Amount to segment on donor behavior. More importantly, we will walk the audience through the steps of how this advanced segmentation is providing valuable insight about the donors and how we are able to develop individualized mailing plans for these donors using this information.  In this session we will share package ideas and creative, results by behavior type, and testing ideas.  By analyzing the data, we have been able to develop solicitation tracks that leverage the donor tendencies to maximize net revenue.

Learn:

• Strategies and techniques for segmenting your donors for behavioral tracks
• How to read the results of the advanced segmentation to gain insight into your donors
• Creative techniques to maximize revenue as a result of the behavioral tracks

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Measuring and Optimizing Multi-Channel Marketing Efforts

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Jeff Regen, Vice President, Online Marketing & Communications, Defenders of Wildlife
Kevin Moran, Principal & Co-Founder, Integral, LLC

Target audience: Intermediate to Advanced (5+ years)

A lot of organizations are engaged in multi-channel marketing, but few are measuring their efforts “scientifically” and optimizing the coordination of channels and the treatment of different audiences.  Join a lively, interactive discussion guided by the speakers on how they measure integrated marketing programs, best practices they’ve discovered and what’s working for them now.  Come ready to share!

Learn:

• Best practices for setting up a multi-channel program
• What and how to test creative across channels
• What’s working, and what’s not, in multi-channel marketing

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Funky Failing Forward

Jon Duschinsky, International Fundraiser and Trainer, bethechange

Target audience: All

Recent research in Europe shows that 70% of projects involving big change are failing.  That means that 70% of campaigns are failing, 70% of fundraising endeavors are failing, and 70% of all we are doing is not working.

Shocked? You should be!

Join Jon on what promises to be Bridge’s most honest, frank and entertaining session as we open the lid on failure.  We will explore the reasons for failure, work out what is going wrong and give you the keys to make sure you are part of the 30% that is succeeding.  And we promise you’ll go out smiling, because what is failure but a stepping stone to success!

Learn:

• What the key reasons are for failure in fundraising
• How to avoid failure and make sure you come out smiling with loads of cash in the bank
• If you have to fail, how to fail intelligently and quickly

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The $150 Million Gift: How Do You Get That?

Judy Graham, VP for Development, Children's National Medical Center
Pam King Sams, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Children's National Medical Center
Dennis McClellan, Director of Principal Gifts, Children's National Medical Center

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

In September 2009, Children’s National Medical Center announced the creation of the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, with a goal of improving surgical outcomes for children everywhere.  The institute was made possible by a $150 million gift from the government of Abu Dhabi, the largest gift ever made for pediatric surgery.  Come hear about how this gift came to fruition, a result of lengthy and meaningful cultivation, solid major gift tools, relationship building, a little luck, patience, hope and a dream.

Learn:

• How to apply major gift strategies to daily work
• Tools and ideas for better relationship building and volunteer management
• How to partner with physicians to create big ideas

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The Adaptive Organization

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Karen Depew, President, Northwood Consulting, Executive Director, DMAW/EF
Christina Haylock, Business Advisor, Ford Communications

Target audience: Advanced (10+ years)

What will organizations need to look like to not only survive but thrive in the 21st Century?  What will emerge as the new core competencies of leaders and teams?  How do you quickly adapt to economic upheavals – from explosive growth to recession to recovery?  The shift from agricultural to industrial to information economies in the 20th century led to the organizational structures, processes and systems suited to the times.  Today, we live in a 24/7 global world that demands organizations and its leaders to quickly respond to continuous change, whether it be new regulations, rapid technical innovations or social changes.  Like navigating the currents of a river, leaders and teams need to be able to anticipate and quickly respond to changing conditions.  Discover how to develop the flexibility and resilience needed to become an Adaptive Organization.

Learn:

• How change is changing
• The demand for a different response
• The attributes of The Adaptive Organization

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Social Networking for Religious Fundraisers

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Laura Durington, Online Community Manager, Catholic Relief Services

Target audience: Beginner - Intermediate (0-9 years)

Discover how Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites can further your awareness building and engagement efforts.  Read more about Catholic Relief Services' use of social networking in the Nonprofit Times' October 1 Special Report on Religious Fundraising. [PDF]

Learn:

• The fundamentals of social networking and look at its meteoric rise as a communications channel
• Why social networking is essential for increasing awareness and fostering engagement with your supporters and cultivate those relationships
• Examples of Catholic Relief Services best practices and success stories in social networking

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Design Thinking Achieves Results: Techniques to Mastering Creative Problem Solving

Blake Stenning, Partner, Pittny Creative

Target audience: Beginner (0-4 years)

In today’s rapidly changing world, the keys to success include the ability to face challenges by thinking through many different angles to arrive at solutions that achieve results in both unexpected and compelling ways.  Smaller budgets, shrinking resources, and increased competition are forcing many to rethink the old tried and true methods and one size fits all approaches.  Creative problem solving is an essential practice for resolving a myriad of organizational challenges.  How does one develop a personal creative process?  By attending this session, participants will learn valuable skills to tackle the toughest problems with confidence by employing proven techniques of  “design thinking.”  At the conclusion, they will have a greater appreciation and understanding of combining a methodical approach with the power of intuition to add greater value and meaning to everything they do.

Learn:

• How to develop a personal creative thinking process
• Techniques to facilitate creative problem solving
• How to get inspired and excited to think differently

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